Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Armenians in Jerusalem
The kingdom of Armenia was
the first country to make
Christianity the state religion,
when in AD 301 its king was
converted. Armenian pilgrims
began to visit the Holy City
soon after. In the 12th century
they purchased St James's
Cathedral from the Georgians,
and this became the focal point
of their community in Jerusalem.
The Armenian Quarter grew to its cur-
rent size in the 17th and 18th centuries,
during the rule of the Turks. In the early
20th century Armenian numbers were
swollen by refugees who had
fled from the 1915 persecution
in Turkey, a terrible genocide
in which some one and a half
million Armenians were exter-
minated. But from a peak of
around 16,000 in 1948, the
Armenian population of Jeru-
salem has since dwindled to
less than 2,000, largely due to
emigration. After the 1967 war,
the Jews also started to encroach into
the area, and the fear now is that other
than in name, the Armenian Quarter
may one day disappear altogether.
Detail from an
Armenian carpet
Tiling
adorns the
interior of St James's
Cathedral. The tiles
were made in the
early 18th century
in Kütahya, a town
around 125 km
(75 miles) southeast
of Constantinople,
and renowned as
the foremost
Armenian ceramic
centre in the
Ottoman Empire.
The Armenian Church
is one of the three
major guardians of the Christian places in the
Holy Land. Among the sites they have at least
partial jurisdiction over are the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, the Tomb of the Virgin Mary
at the foot of the Mount of Olives, the Church
of the Nativity in Bethlehem and, of course,
St James's Cathedral
(above).
Mosaics represent
the finest legacy of ancient
Armenian art. This 5th- or 6th-century example
was unearthed just outside Damascus Gate.
Armenian-language
manuscripts
, such as thi
13th-century example, ar
held in huge numbers at the
Gulbenkian Library, next to
St James's Cathedral.
Giant pots
for wine or
oil, dating from around
1700, are displayed at
the Mardigian Museum.